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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORS

June 3, 2016

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Practice Day

COACH KERR: First I'd like to thank the 11 of you for showing up today. Let's proceed (laughing).

Q. They were 17 for 35 at the rim last night. That's a lot of attempts, but a low conversion rate, I guess. How would you evaluate that in regards to how you guys defended the paint?
COACH KERR: Watching the tape, I thought we did a good job of challenging a lot of shots. I thought they missed a couple that they would normally make, but all in all it was a good defensive effort. But it's probably going to have to be better in Game 2, because we know the force that they're going to come with.

Q. Two very hard-hitting questions for you. First one, marketing departments throughout professional sports very carefully craft slogans that teams then bring into the arena and put on T-shirts. What was your inspiration when you coined the phrase "Strength in Numbers"?
COACH KERR: Well, the inspiration was not financially motivated or I would have trademarked it before the team stole it from me.

I looked at the roster, and we had so many guys who can play. It seemed obvious that if we played 10, 11 people every night at a high level for shorter minutes that we could wear people down. So I think what happened was I put together a video to show the team on the eve of training camp, our first year, and I wanted kind of them to get a feel for who we are as a staff. So there was some humor involved and some clips from movies, and I had Marv Albert narrate it. So we worked pretty hard on this thing.

Q. How did that sound?
COACH KERR: Oh, can you imagine Marv saying Strength in Numbers? Strength in Numbers! It sounds way more dramatic when Marv says it.

It was just -- I don't know. Marv and I got together and I sent him a script and we kind of talked about it. But the Strength in Numbers stuff just kind of came up based on the roster and how deep we were.

Q. Secondly, I was watching Steph finish his ritual last night in that tunnel with that ridiculous shot. From a degree of difficulty standpoint, how would you characterize that shot and why is it that he can make it ever?
COACH KERR: Yeah, pretty tough shot. But I think what it speaks to more than anything is Steph is a kid at heart. He's always trying crazy stuff. The TV was on in our office last night before the game, and I think it was on the pregame stuff or whatever, and they're showing our guys warming up. And Steph is trying to punch the ball. Did you see that? He's trying to punch the ball in from a corner three. Like what is that?

But it's his approach to the game. It's kind of who he is. He loves to play. He's a kid at heart. He just tries all kinds of different crazy things, and he's pretty good at it.

Q. You had a lot of success with guys at the bench, different nights, different situations, things are really clicking. How much of that is a plan for that game, and how much is sort of on feel when you come off the bench?
COACH KERR: Well, obviously players have to perform, and if they get the chance, it's up to them to produce, and we like to give a lot of people chances to play. We like to use a lot of people. As I said, we have a lot of depth, so we have faith that our players are going to come in and play well. But you can never plan for that. You just do what you do, and it's up to the players.

And they did a great job last night. Obviously in particular living and Barbosa and Iguodala off the bench were terrific.

Q. Is it a kind of thing where maybe Speights would be the next guy to do something in another game?
COACH KERR: Yeah, yeah, every series is different, and every game is different. Mo has won plenty of games for us this year. He hit huge shots against Portland in that series and against OKC. So there's a good chance you'll see him in this series when the moment is right.

I think there's something powerful about everybody playing. I learned that from Phil Jackson. If you remember in kind of the early days, early '90s when the Bulls started winning titles, had a lot of guys who would come off the bench and fans were like what is --

Q. You were one of them?
COACH KERR: But I remember. The one that jumps out at me is they were down like 15 to Portland at home and he had Bobby Hansen and Stacey King, and B.J. Armstrong on the floor, and I think Michael and Scottie were both out. Maybe Scottie was on the floor. Scottie was on the floor? Yeah. But those were great lessons for me too. Because when guys are vested, there's a strength that comes through that and a unity. And they're in the NBA for a reason. Everybody on every roster in the NBA is a hell of a basketball player.

So it's fun to use a lot of different people, and it's great to see guys invested and emotionally involved.

Q. There was a time when you said you wanted to keep Andre to like 30 minutes, but he's racked up a lot, but he still seems to be fresh. He's got legs on his three. What are you seeing from him physically out there?
COACH KERR: He looks great. Part of the plan during the regular season is to try to keep his minutes down so that we can then run him into the ground during the Playoffs (laughing) because we need him.

Q. You have often said that the second year after you win a championship things tend to get a little easier. I wonder what burdens are lifted from a team after they win a title, and what do they learn and what is created within that group that allows them to be better the second year?
COACH KERR: Yeah, it's an interesting dynamic when you're trying to repeat because it's obviously a very difficult thing to do. I think only six franchises have ever repeated in the league's history. A lot of times breaks come into play, injuries, whatever.

But on the flip side, if you're able to stay healthy, there's a level of confidence and relief that comes with having a ring already. Especially these days. There's such a burden and a stigma on players and teams that have not won the big one. You can name any of the above superstars. You see their name attached, whether it's Charles Barkley or whoever, Stockton and Malone, oh, they didn't win the big one. I mean, come on, they were some of the greatest players of all time and had phenomenal runs. But winning the big one these days, it lifts a burden.

So in many ways I think you're able to kind of as a player, maybe as a team, as a group, you can say, hey, that pressure is gone. But don't let your guard down. Let's do it again, because it's really fun, and that's kind of the approach, I think.

Q. What is Cleveland doing, if anything, differently against Steph and Klay defensively maybe compared to the past or last year? And secondly, how have you been able to get away when Steph switches on LeBron? They really haven't taken much advantage of that. How have you been able to get away with that?
COACH KERR: Well, first question, I think everybody has played us differently this year. We had a lot of success last year getting Draymond free and having him as a playmaker. I think everybody has sort of tried different things and come up with different formulas. So we've seen everything. I thought Cleveland did a good job yesterday and they had a good game plan, and we have to be able to combat that. I think we will, but this year has been good for us because every team has been sort of throwing different stuff at us. So we're not surprised by anything.

Second part of the question, yeah, I mean, LeBron with anybody is a difficult matchup. But when Steph switches on to him, he's just got to do his best to stay in front, and we've got to help as much as we can without giving up open threes. It's much easier said than done, so we're just doing our best.

Q. Since that kicking incident with Draymond Green, have you noticed anything, or not, in terms of his mindset, his approach that would illustrate how it's affected him?
COACH KERR: I think he's well aware of the situation, and so he's playing through frustration better. He's not letting missed calls get to him. He's just playing. He may have a word with the official, but it's in a respectful manner. I think he's handled it really well.

Q. Going back to the final three games of last year's Finals against Cleveland during the regular season and then Game 1, what are some of the mechanisms or thought process that keeps you from being too confident and keeps that angst or whatever it is there that we sometimes have the feeling that you have their number? What prevents you from feeling that way?
COACH KERR: Because we don't (laughing). We don't, honestly. I mean, that's something that we don't -- we never look at what happened in the regular season or last year. Every game is so entirely new.

And the team we're facing now is totally different from the one we saw in the regular season and the one we saw in The Finals, based on injuries, based on coaching, based on health, based on new acquisitions, new lineups.

So the team we beat last night is brand new. The previous five games or whatever mean nothing to us. So we don't pay attention to that.

Q. Was there a time when you started working with this team where you kind of really realized that Draymond's energy was a different thing than most guys, that his competitiveness was at a different level? Do you ever wish that you could maybe turn it off?
COACH KERR: I don't think it works that way. But, no. When we realized what we had in Draymond was at the beginning of last season when David Lee got hurt and we put Draymond in the starting lineup and we got off to a great start. At 6'6" or whatever, you look at him and you don't think this guy can play center for us or even power forward in a lot of matchups. But with David's injury, we had I think 20 games or so where we just let Draymond go at that spot. It was like, wow, I mean, he can guard everybody and he's got that fire and that edge that we need.

So that turned into -- David's injury turned into a blessing in disguise for us because we became a better team with Draymond's activity and his energy and his defense, and it allowed us to bring David off the bench, which was a huge luxury to have a former All-Star coming off the bench in a reserve role, and obviously David played a huge role in The Finals last year.

So it all worked out. But that was kind of the point where we realized what Draymond could become. And we want his energy, we want his edge, and we're perfectly fine with what comes along with that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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